Joseph Hughes

Since the release of Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli's seminal Batman: Year One, DC has used a similar model and title with several of its heroes, often to great acclaim. Now Marvel has decided to do the same with its flagship character. To coincide with the return of Peter Parker, Marvel has announced The Amazing Spider-Man Year One: Learning To Crawl, a five issue miniseries from Dan Slott and Ramón Pérez that looks back at the wall crawler's earliest adventures.

Whether he's drawing Clint Eastwood's empty chair or art for every Breaking Bad episode, Francesco Francavilla's blog is always worth checking in on. In addition to his work on The Black Beetle, as well providing covers for several other comics, the almost impossibly prolific cartoonist is consistently posting fun art on his blog that's inspired by current events. This time he's getting into the Winter Olympics spirit, illustrating various Marvel and DC characters participating in Winter Olympics events.

Some are too obvious not to do, like Death the Black Racer cross-country skiing, but others are a bit more surprising, and you can check a few out below.

Fans of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series have been looking for some closure, and now they're finally going to get it. The popular animated series will return for a sixth and final season, titled "The Lost Missions," after an agreement between Netflix and Lucasfilm/Disney. All 13 episodes of season six will be available on Netflix on March 7, as well as the the previous five seasons and the feature film.

Even with so much attention being given to the various movies starring Marvel heroes, from various film studios, it can still be a little confusing to try to figure out which studio owns film rights to which characters. But you know what helps clear everything up, always? Venn Diagrams. With that in mind The Geek Twins have created a helpful infographic explaining where the film rights for many popular Marvel characters are, including which ones overlap.

Comic-Con International has revealed the three automatic inductees and 14 nominees for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2014. The automatic inductees are Golden Age artist Irwin Hasen and Sheldon Moldoff, and Orrin C. Evans. Hasen is best known as the co-creator of the Dondi comic strip, as well as for his work on The Flash,Green Lantern and Wildcat for DC. Moldoff, who passed away in 2012, was an uncredited artist on early Batman stories, co-creating Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and the original Batwoman, among others. Orrin C. Evans was the publisher of the seminal All-Negro Comics, the first known comic to be written and illustrated exclusively by African-American creators.

The 14 nominees for the Hall of Fame include Dennis O'Neil, Alan Moore, Hayao Miyazaki and Bernie Wrightson, among other notable creators. You can view the full list and press release below.

It's no secret that Greg Rucka's last experience writing for Marvel left the award-winning writer frustrated. But time passes and fences are mended, and as we've seen so often in the past, it's never too late for a creator to return. Sometimes all it takes is the right project.

So while it may not be a surprise, it is certainly welcome news that Rucka will be returning to Marvel to write an ongoing solo series starring the younger Cyclops from All-New X-Men, collaborating with illustrator Russell Dauterman. And what appealed to Rucka about the project wasn't just his affinity for the Marvel character, but the fact that he has a son around the same age.

Launched in 1970, Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury is one of the longest running comic strips of all time. But when you're working on anything on a daily basis for 43 years, even something you love, you probably need a break every now and then to try something new. So perhaps it shouldn't come as a shock that Trudeau has announced he'll be taking a leave of absence from Doonesbury to focus on Alpha House, the John Goodman-led television show he created that was just picked up for a second season.

This isn't Trudeau's first time stepping away from the strip for an extended period, but at this stage of his career, it's not much of a stretch to wonder whether or not he'll come back.

Since its launch in 2012, IDW's Judge Dredd series has served as a great introduction to the character for new readers, while also expanding on the story of Mega-City One's most notable protector in a way longtime readers can enjoy. That can be a difficult balance to maintain, but creators Duane Swierczynski and Nelson Daniel have been up to the task so far, with new stories in the universe of what writer Swierczynski recently described to ComicsAlliance as "the ultimate police procedural."

And the creative team isn't done yet. Far from it, in fact. The upcoming story may be their most ambitious yet, as the two are set to reintroduce the Dark Judges into their series. Further, in addition to Judge Death, Mortis, Fire and Fear, the duo are introducing new Dark Judges in next month's Judge Dredd #17.

One such character is the as-yet-unrevealed Judge Burroughs. IDW has provided ComicsAlliance with a first look at the new Dredd antagonist, which you can check out below.

We've been paying close attention to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's work in Zero Year, the current Batman storyline that looks back at one of the Dark Knight's earliest adventures in Gotham. But the upcoming issue #28 offers a brief intermission, jumping out of Batman's past and into his near future. Written by Snyder and James Tynion and illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, the issue offers an early look at what's to come in Batman Eternal, the weekly series starting in March. Taking to Twitter back in December, Snyder described it as a "spoiler issue": “We agreed that with all the crazy stuff that's going to happen in 2014 - and my goal above all in 2014 is to keep things daring and fun - it'd be a thrill to do a total spoiler issue," said Snyder "A stand-alone issue that takes place in the near future and reveals all sorts of massive surprises coming to Gotham.”

Snyder will be a guest on DC All Access, DC Comics' web series that features interviews with creators, editors, and more. The publisher has provided ComicsAlliance with a sneak peak at the interview, which includes a look at some of Nguyen's art, that you can check out below.

James Baldwin once described America as a "country devoted to the death of the paradox." He was right, of course. We're more comfortable seeing things in extremes, in black and white. A person from one culture or background can be instantly labeled as an upstanding citizen, exemplifying everything good about "real America." Superman is from Kansas, not San Francisco.

But if you're from another background, you can be instantly labeled as something else entirely: lazy, entitled, a thug, "Un-American." To many, there are those who fit into a certain label based on where they grew up, what school they went to, what church they attend. To think otherwise, to consider that there is more to us than blanket, largely basely assumptions, isn't as easy. And for many, it's too uncomfortable. It's too much work.

Ms. Marvel #1 stands in stark contrast to that sentiment. Written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona, each major character introduced in this first issue is a celebration and exploration of the paradox. It is a book full of characters who remind you of people you know, or people you knew. It's a book that's unique, but nonetheless familiar. It is also, by almost any measure, one of the best first issues of a superhero comic in years. And, if we're being honest, it probably needed to be.

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